Many companies partner with the University of Washington – Bothell (UWB) to support the funding of events and amenities to the benefit of students. Corporations such as Starbucks, BECU, PepsiCo., WSECU and Boeing all have current partnerships and deals in place with the university. By partnering with the university, companies are betting on short term demand from students with hopes of developing long term relationships with impressionable consumers.
Gold Brew is a familiar sight to anybody who’s been to the UWB campus. Gold Brew uses Starbucks branding despite not being an official Starbucks location.
By maintaining a presence on campus, Starbucks hopes to mold consumer preferences towards the brand. UW Bothell students at Gold Brew said that they come to the cafe almost every time they’re on campus, though fewer reported frequenting off-campus Starbucks locations nearly as frequently.
Johanna Pajanen, an operations and management professor at UW Bothell, speaks about corporate partnerships on campus (Photo by Atharva Barad/Husky Herald)
Johanna Pajanen is an operations and project management professor in the School of Business at UW Bothell. She has worked operations at Starbucks for 25 years. Pajanen said that when Starbucks operates on a college campus, the company typically works through a licensing agreement with the university and an operating partner. She said food offerings can vary by contract, but the drinks and core ingredients still follow Starbucks standards and recipes.
Pejanen notes, “You have access to a huge number of very, I would say, moldable consumers. … The amount of messaging and branding and [stuff] that they can put in front of you, that is prime.”
“You’re fishing in a little pond with a very sharp thing. So for a company, it’s golden to get access to that consumer. Not only are you getting access to that consumer, but you’re also getting a lot of data on that consumer behavior.”
Selling on college campuses gives companies direct access to young consumers while also helping executives observe buying habits, test products and build long-term brand familiarity.
Munder Abukhder is the Associated Students of University of Washington Bothell’s Director of Finance. He stated that sponsorships are usually a one-off arrangement, in which the sponsor simply offers funds to support an event, program, or facility, in exchange for positive branding. A good example of this is WSECU sponsoring the Discovery Hall MakerSpace, which displays the WSECU logo at the front entrance on the glass door. WESCU gets branding in exchange for helping fund the MakerSpace.
BECU is an example of a partnership; they have an ATM on campus and even offer UW Husky cards for their users.
Partnerships however, are a long-term relationship, often contractually-bound over several years. Adukhder said the specific conditions of each partnership vary between partner to partner, but can entail regularly hosting on-campus events, and exclusivity/preference for that partner’s products/services.
Abukhder said that BECU’s partnership with UW goes further than just having ATMs on campus, “…that partnership extends deeper into things such as financial workshops or fiscal responsibility [education]. These are all events that BECU may hold on our campus, or part of the greater tri-Campus Initiative.” UW has been partnered with BECU for the past 18 years. Over that time, they have supported raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for university programs and events, offered financial help to students and alumni, and sponsored campus events alongside their continued financial workshops across all campuses.
UWB also fosters partnerships with two other major brands: PepsiCo and Boeing. Pajanen said that PepsiCo acquired the partnership through a bidding process back in 2023. During the negotiation process with the company, exclusivity rights were brought up along with any fees that the university might put on. Abukhder said partnerships like this usually last for 10 years.
A UWB student purchases a drink from a Pepsi-branded vending machine in UW2 (left). A Pepsi drink vending machine and a PepsiCo. owned snack vending machine in UW1 (right).
This exclusivity deal gives PepsiCo. legitimate monopoly power on campus. Across all three UW campuses, the only vending machines and branded soft drinks available are PepsiCo. products such as Mountain Dew, Aquafina, Dr. Pepper and Pepsi cola flavors. Snacks such as Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos and more are owned and offered by PepsiCo.
A map listing the snack and drink availability based on the vending machines across UWB. (Map by Dylan Wuu/Husky Herald)
According to Alejandro Francetich, an associate business professor at UWB, “…having their name on campus and being affiliated with the campus community is a form of advertising”. This ability to exclusively advertise their products to students could indirectly drive higher off-campus sales, said Francetich, further boosting overall sales of their products.
Partnerships between corporations and UW Bothell benefit both parties. Francetich said that the business school at UWB has a longstanding partnership with Boeing. “…in relation to partnering with a university, they have access to or they can provide internships to our students. And so they get students that are working towards a four year degree, say in business, who are eager to learn and to apply their knowledge in a real world business environment,”.
However, Boeing as a corporation also stands to benefit from this partnership, not only students. Francetich noted that Boeing also stands to benefit from this partnership. “…if someone does a particularly impressive job in their partnership, they may become hired full time once they graduate. So it’s like a privileged access to a specialized workforce.
Beyond UW Bothell, the greater university is also involved with Boeing through the Boeing Advanced Research Collaboration Lab (BARC) on the UW Seattle campus. Through the BARC, Boeing provides education and opportunities for industry experience.
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